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6/5/2004

John Clarke

It must be an unwritten rule that all good soul instrumental groups have a hyphenated name that ends with “Keys”. So we have the Mar-Keys of The Last Night! fame, the Pac-Keys who gave us Stone Fox and, with a vowel change, the Soul Finger hitmakers, the Bar-Kays. The six-strong Bo-Keys, founded in Memphis by the bass player Scott Bomar, are the latest to take on the mantle with a brass, guitar and keyboards set that evokes memories of the golden days of Stax, but with a discreet contemporary touch.

Recorded at Willie Mitchell’s Royal studios in Memphis (the spiritual home of Al Green) and with Mitchell's son Archie at the controls, this album brings a solid funky feel to classics such as Coming Home Baby, Back at the Chicken Shack and James Brown’s Doin’ it to Death.

Playing a prominent part are Charles “Skip” Pitts, the guitarist who gave us the famous “wah-wah” guitar chords on Shaft, and the organist Ronnie Williams, another Stax veteran who played on Rufus Thomas’s Do the Funky Chicken. They meld on the Latin- tinged Spanish Delight, the evocative I Remember Stax and the infectious Bling Bling. Nothing too fancy here. Just straight-ahead instrumental funk played from the heart. ( * * * * 4 stars)